Evaluation of the effect of doxycycline eye drops on rabbit evaporative dry eye

Objective To study the effect and mechanism of doxycycline eye drops on rabbit evaporative dry eye.Methods Dry eye model was established by cauterizing the meibomian gland orifices on sixteen New Zealand white rabbits.On the sixth week after operation,they were divided into four groups of 0.1% doxycycline solution group,1% methylcellulose eye drops group,combined treatment group and control group,respectively.The different eye drops were administrated in corresponding experimental groups four times every day while the forth group was no treated as blank control.Eyelid swelling,lid margin hyperemia,lid margin eschar,meibomian gland orifices,con-junctival hyperemia,rose bengal stain,fluorescence stain,SchirmerⅠtest and conjunctiva impression cytology test were performed scheduledly before and after operation.After 11 weeks,eyelid,conjunctiva,and cornea tissues biopsy were carried out under optical microscope.Results Before using eye drops,no significant difference was found among four groups in rose bengal stain,fluorescence stain and conjunctival goblet cell density.On 1,2,3,5 weeks after administration,rose bengal stain and fluorescence stain of rabbits in the combined treatment group were lower and goblet cell density was higher significantly comparing with the control group(P0.05).No significant difference was observed among other three groups(P0.05).Under optical microscope examination of pathologic slice,inflammatory cell infiltration could be found in conjunctiva tissues biopsy of blank control group only.Conclusion Doxycycline eye drops can alleviate the ocular surface inflammation of dry eye rabbit and decrease dry eye signs combined with artificial tear,which suggests doxycycline eye drops is valuable to dry eye.